There have been many attempts in the prior art to fabricate lightweight chairs and other furniture items from corrugated cardboard. While such cardboard materials have a relatively brief useful lifespan because they are not inherently highly durable, the low cost of the materials and methods of manufacture have resulted in relatively inexpensive chairs, thus justifying the relatively short useful lifespan.
Exemplary of the art in this field are the following patents: Steuer U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,880; Snyder U.S. Pat. No. 3,178,227; Downes U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,362; Giebel U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,546; Caigan U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,751; and Klein U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,970. To our knowledge, none of these has met with general acceptance or marketing success which we believe may be due to the relative complexity of these chairs in terms of the blank layout and material wastage, the difficulty of "set-up" or assembly of the chairs by the consumer at the time of use, the difficulty in disassembly for storage (they are not easy to knock down for storage), and relatively poor seating comfort. While complex or multi-part blanks are difficult to set up and knock down for storage or shipping, they also very significantly increase the cost, thus making them unattractive to the consumer in view of their very short lifespan.
To our knowledge, there is no single-use, lightweight, portable chair which is fabricated from a single, standard-size sheet of relatively rigid material to form a chair that is inexpensive, simple to manufacture, can be easily set up and knocked down, is easy to carry, and is ergonomically comfortable.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide such type of chair which is economic even from a single-use point of view for outdoor festivals, special events, or any other situation in which large crowds gather for a relatively short period of time where there is no immediate seating readily available. Such use extends to campgrounds, parks, garden parties, barbecues, picnics, beach usage, and the like, where it is desirable to provide inexpensive seating for limited use and which may be conveniently disposed-of when desired, or knocked down to flat form for transport and storage. Another important use is for children's furniture as children, during growth years, need various sizes of furniture before being able to be comfortable in adult-sized furniture. In addition, this type of furniture would be useful in children's playrooms or parties as it will save wear and soiling of other household furniture.